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يهتم البحث بدراسة التوجهات الايرانية ازاء المنطقة العربية ضمن القارة الافريقية، وتكمن اهميته بمعرفة طبيعة تلك التوجهات والمنطلقات والمرتكزات التي اعتمدتها السياسة الخارجية الايرانية ازاء المنطقة العربية في القارة الافريقية واهمية تلك المنطلقات في رسم السياسة الخارجية الايرانية تباعا، ويهدف البحث الى الوقوف عند معرفة ابعاد السياسة الخارجية الايرانية ومدى ما حققته من نتائج ومكاسب، وانعكاساتها على واقع العلاقات العربية – الايرانية ولاسيما البلدان العربية ضمن القارة الافريقية، وهل كانت لها تأثيرات ايجابية ام عكس ذلك؟ . حاول البحث تتبع مسار التوجهات الايرانية نحو القارة الافريقية بشكل عام كمدخل لمعرفة مدى الاهتمام الايراني بالمنطقة العربية الافريقية، والعوامل التي اسهمت في جذب ايران نحو القارة الافريقية .وتم تناول الموضوع من خلال اهتمام ايران بالقارة الافريقية ابان العهد الملكي ، والمنطلقات الاساسية التي اعتمدتها السياسة الخارجية الايرانية ازاء المنطقة العربية في القارة الافريقية، وهي المنطلقات السياسية والفكرية والاقتصادية والعسكرية والامنية، واخيرا معوقات السياسة الايرانية في المنطقة العربية- الافريقية

A hydraulic press is a machine using a hydraulic cylinder to generate a compressive force. Frame, hydraulic cylinder and press table are the main components of the hydraulic press. In this project press frame, cylinder and press table are designed by the design procedure. They are analyzed to improve their performance and quality for press working operation. Using the optimum resources possible in designing the hydraulic press components can effect reduction in the cost by optimizing the weight of material utilized for building the structure. An attempt has been made in this direction to reduce the volume of material. So in this paper we consider an industrial application project consisting of mass minimization of H frame type hydraulic press. This press has to compensate the forces acting on the working plates and has to fulfill certain critical constraints. Here we use implementation for analysis and optimization of hydraulic press. The aim of this paper is to integrate the mechanical system of hydraulic press with hydraulic system to facilitate the ease of operation to manufacture the smaller parts in a bulk. In the present scenario, time constrain is a crucial part for completion of any production process. Thus with the aid of automization, the production time can be reduced as well as higher degree of accuracy can be achieved as the human efforts will be alleviated. Thus an attempt has been made to provide the smooth and rapid functioning of press work with the help of hydraulic system.

This research seeks to examine the impact of workstation types on the coupling of neural and vascular activities of the prefrontal cortex (PFC). The design of the workstations was found to impair the performance, physical and mental health of employees. However, the mechanism underlying cognitive activity involved during workstation design-related stress effects in the PFC has not been fully understood. We used electroencephalography (EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to simultaneously measure electrical activity and hemoglobin concentration changes in the PFC. The multimodal signal was collected from 23 healthy adult volunteers who completed the Montreal imaging stress task in ergonomic and non-ergonomic workstations. A supervised machine learning method based on temporally embedded canonical correlation analysis (tCCA) was utilized to obtain the association between neural activity and local changes in hemoglobin concentrations to enhance localization and accuracy. The results showed deactivation in alpha power rhythms and oxygenated hemoglobin, as well as declined activation pattern of the fused data in the right PFC at the non-ergonomic workstation. Additionally, all participants at the non-ergonomic workstation experienced a substantial rise in salivary alpha-amylase activity in comparison with the ergonomic workstation, indicating the existence of high-stress levels. The proposed tCCA approach obtains excellent results in discriminating workstation types achieving accuracies of 98.8% and a significant improvement of 8.0% (p

According to psychological studies, the most fundamental personality is the extraversion personality. Most studies looking at differences between extroverts and introverts are pen and paper based studies. However, in a few studies, electrophysiological signals were involved. In this paper, we reviewed studies examining extraversion personality using electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERP). It was found that some of the EEG studies claimed that extroverts and introverts can be differentiated using baseline EEG, while some others claimed otherwise. Conflicting findings were also observed in the ERP studies; higher/lower P300 amplitude in extroverts compared to that of introverts in visual stimuli tasks. These various findings are probably due to differences in their experimental protocols, sample size, or age of subjects. Other possible reasons include no consideration given on the main feature of extraversion and the studies only focused on EEG power spectral analysis. We are thus suggesting for future investigations to involve the main feature such as sociability and/or to incorporate more EEG features in the analysis to produce more robust and reliable results. This review constitutes a guidance for research on brain-related conditions of extroverts and introverts and shall be useful in many areas.

This study aims to evaluate the effect of workstation type on the neural and vascular networks of the prefrontal cortex (PFC) underlying the cognitive activity involved during mental stress. Workstation design has been reported to affect the physical and mental health of employees. However, while the functional effects of ergonomic workstations have been documented, there is little research on the influence of workstation design on the executive function of the brain. In this study, 23 healthy volunteers in ergonomic and non-ergonomic workstations completed the Montreal imaging stress task, while their brain activity was recorded using the synchronized measurement of electroencephalography and functional near-infrared spectroscopy. The results revealed desynchronization in alpha rhythms and oxygenated hemoglobin, as well as decreased functional connectivity in the PFC networks at the non-ergonomic workstations. Additionally, a significant increase in salivary alpha-amylase activity was observed in all participants at the non-ergonomic workstations, confirming the presence of induced stress. These findings suggest that workstation design can significantly impact cognitive functioning and human capabilities at work. Therefore, the use of functional neuroimaging in workplace design can provide critical information on the causes of workplace-related stress.

Stress is a complex response that begins when people are exposed to various stressors, including psychological and environmental factors, which are associated with negative cognitive effects. However, little is known about their interactions within the brain. This research aimed to examine the influence of low and high noise levels in the workplace on changes in brain activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) during stressful psychological tasks by measuring synchronized functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and electroencephalogram (EEG). The results showed a decreased oxygenated haemoglobin (HbO) concentrations in the right dorsolateral PFC and part of the frontopolar area when exposed to higher noise levels compared to lower levels. Results also showed a higher correlation between fNIRS-HbO and EEG-alpha power under stress conditions compared to other EEG bands. We suggest that higher levels of noise in the workplace may be directly related to increased psychological stress.

Biosignals from psychophysiological changes can be measured as electroencephalography (EEG), heart rate, skin conductance, and respiration rate, to name a few. They have been used in many research areas including human personality. Neuroticism, one of the five major traits underlie personality, reflects stable tendency towards experiencing negative emotions. An understanding of how neuroticism influences responses to psychological distress may shed a light upon individual differences in emotion self-regulation. To study the causal relationship between neuroticism and psychophysiological signals, a selection of appropriate baseline signals as a reference signal is essential to compare to current experimental signals of interest. Thus, we present classification of neuroticism using psychophysiological signals obtained during a speaking task based on two different baseline measurements (eyes closed and eyes open). Eight healthy male participants consisting of four neurotic and four emotionally stable subjects were recruited based on Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) scoring system. Four features including mean EEG beta power, heart rate, skin conductance, and respiration rate were used for the classification using a Support Vector Machine (SVM). The results showed higher classification accuracy achieved with eyes open as the baseline (62.5%) as compared to eyes closed as the baseline (37.5%), during speaking task. This indicate the importance of selecting appropriate baseline in analysis involving EEG and physiological signals.

The extraversion personality trait has a positive correlation with social interaction. In neuroimaging studies, investigations on extraversion in face-to-face verbal interactions are still scarce. This study presents an electroencephalography (EEG)-based investigation of the extraversion personality trait in relation to eye contact during face-to-face interactions, as this is a vital signal in social interactions. A sample of healthy male participants were selected (consisting of sixteen more extraverted and sixteen less extraverted individuals) and evaluated with the Eysenck's Personality Inventory (EPI) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) tools. EEG alpha oscillations in the occipital region were measured to investigate extraversion personality trait correlates of eye contact during a face-to-face interaction task and an eyes-open condition. The results revealed that the extraversion personality trait has a significant positive correlation with EEG alpha coherence in the occipital region, presumably due to its relationship with eye contact during the interaction task. Furthermore, the decrease in EEG alpha power during the interaction task compared to the eyes-open condition was found to be greater in the less extraverted participants; however, no significant difference was observed between the less and more extraverted participants. Overall, these findings encourage further research towards the understanding of neural mechanism correlates of the extraversion personality trait-particularly in social interaction.

Color is a perceptual stimulus that has a significant impact on improving human emotion and memory. Studies have revealed that colored multimedia learning materials (MLMs) have a positive effect on learner’s emotion and learning where it was assessed by subjective/objective measurements. This study aimed to quantitatively assess the influence of colored MLMs on emotion, cognitive processes during learning, and long-term memory (LTM) retention using electroencephalography (EEG). The dataset consisted of 45 healthy participants, and MLMs were designed in colored or achromatic illustrations to elicit emotion and that to assess its impact on LTM retention after 30-min and 1-month delay. The EEG signal analysis was first started to estimate the effective connectivity network (ECN) using the phase slope index and expand it to characterize the ECN pattern using graph theoretical analysis. EEG results showed that colored MLMs had influences on theta and alpha networks, including (1) an increased frontal-parietal connectivity (top–down processing), (2) a larger number of brain hubs, (3) a lower clustering coefficient, and (4) a higher local efficiency, indicating that color influences information processing in the brain, as reflected by ECN, together with a significant improvement in learner’s emotion and memory performance. This is evidenced by a more positive emotional valence and higher recall accuracy for groups who learned with colored MLMs than that of achromatic MLMs. In conclusion, this paper demonstrated how the EEG ECN parameters could help quantify the influences of colored MLMs on emotion and cognitive processes during learning.

Neuroticism is correlated with negative emotion such as anxiety, fear, depressed mood and loneliness which could be measured using physiological signals such as skin conductance, heart rate, and respiration rates. In this paper, we aim to investigate the correlation between neuroticism and physiological changes during speaking tasks. Eight healthy male subjects were selected including four subjects with high level of neuroticism (neurotic) and four emotionally stable subjects evaluated by Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) and Big Five Inventory (BFI) tools. The physiological responses were recorded during baseline measurements (eyes closed and eyes open) and during speaking tasks by using the FlexComp Infiniti encoder with Biograph Infiniti software by Thought Technology Ltd. The results showed that the skin conductance and the heart rate of neurotic subjects were higher than that of the stable subjects during baseline measurements and speaking tasks. In comparison to the baseline, lower respiration rate was exhibited in both stable and neurotic subjects during speaking tasks. However, the neurotic subjects exhibited slight increase in their respiration rates compared to the stable subjects. This paper provides preliminary evidence for physiological responses associated with neuroticism that can shed some light in social interaction studies, stress reduction studies based on mindfulness or emotion regulation to name a few.

Bypassing red light is a traffic offense contributing in many accidents in Malaysia. Having a monitoring system to capture such an incidence helps to provide evidence to convict the traffic offenders; hence, potentially reducing the number of accidents. This paper proposes a framework design of traffic light offense monitoring to improve traffic light signals adherence for drivers in Malaysia. The input, the process and the output of the monitoring are investigated to develop accurate framework design for better accuracy. Additional work is presented on hardware selection and software usage cost effectiveness. The challenges to design the framework are also identified. Contributions of this study to IR4.0 is briefly discussed.

Teaching adult learners is challenging because the characteristics of adult learners and their expectations are different from children/early adolescence. Recent advances in digital technology offer various opportunities that are particularly useful in fostering adult learning by transforming traditional “live” classroom-based into “virtual.” This chapter aims to explore how the digital technologies affect the way the brain learns and memorizes, including cognitive, emotional, and behavioral dimensions to promote personal and professional development. First, this chapter presents the application of digital technologies that support and engage adult learners in enhancing knowledge acquisition and retention, discusses the specific engagement techniques for adult, along with the research on multimedia learning. This chapter also covered neuroscience studies related to brain-based learning and strategies. The opportunities and challenges of the use of digital technology and multimedia platform to be effective learning tools for academic context and lifelong learning are also presented.

The decision for approving Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) iscomplex due to data uncertainty related to inability to collect therequired data sets on existing baseline conditions. The current practiceof EIA implementation in the city of Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia(KSA), is conducted without a base index for the evaluation of projectalternatives and proposals.This paper attempts to propose a systematic procedure used fordeveloping a base index for the city of Jeddah that employs the expertiseof a domain expert in the field of EIA for coastal resort projects tooperate the fuzzy logic approach. This technique handles uncertainty andoffers a practical solution to the evaluation of environmental impactsthat express the quantitative threshold and represent qualitative valuesinherited in EIA decision process. In this paper, 30 input variables and10 indicators are considered in the assessment of the existing baselineconditions for the city of Jeddah.

Cisternal injections of blood in the rat and squirrel monkey produce an angiographically demonstrable biphasic vasospasm with a maximal late spasm at two days in the rat and six days post-subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) in the monkey. The SAH induces a decrease in cerebral blood flow of about 25% and a corresponding increase in glucose uptake of between 30% and 50%. In about half of the animals low-flow areas were noted in the cortex and the basal ganglia with a corresponding marked increase in glucose uptake. Lesioning of the A2-nucleus, its ascending pathway or the median eminence prevents the occurrence of spasm. Similarly, treatment with a substance P antagonist or gammaglobulin against substance P prevents or significantly reduces the degree of spasm. A unilateral post-ganglionic trigeminal lesion causes an ipsilateral constriction of the cerebral arteries of 27%, while a preganglionic lesion does not affect the baseline diameter. A pre- or post-ganglionic trigeminal lesion induces an increase in glucose uptake globally of about 50% without influencing cerebral blood flow. Following SAH the decrease in blood flow in both groups of lesioned animals is similar to that seen in controls. After SAH there is no further change in glucose uptake in the animals with a preganglionic lesion, while in the post-ganglionically lesioned animals there is an additional increase in glucose uptake of about 50% as compared to controls or the animals with a preganglionic lesion.